What happens when the Design Process meets Community Engagement

Community Engaged Design is often framed as a binary opposite to Commercial Design. Through the investigation of four design case studies this research contributes two key findings – 1. that in the case of these projects, there were many variables that could affect the design process and 2. that the differences between commercial and community engaged design projects are not as great as the differences between different design projects. Secondly, the research findings suggest that it is not only the clients’ instructions and the commissions that determine the designers’ processes and practices, but also the designers’ beliefs, intents, practices and values.